Q: If John Elway were able to draft a good passing quarterback next spring, … would (Tim) Tebow be willing and able to be the running back and, incidentally, also the backup quarterback? Would (John) Elway be able to pull that off?

A: Eric, the Broncos, like any team doing its due diligence in the draft, should always scout the quarterbacks heavily each year with the best-case scenario being that the team’s football decision-makers — particularly Elway — see those prospects in person in some combination of games, workouts, the Senior Bowl or organized pro days.

The notion that a team should never scout a quarterback if it believes it has a long-term starter is misplaced and always will be. There are more than a few teams that let a lack of depth at quarterback derail their seasons — Chicago, for example.

So, the Broncos, if they keep to their draft-first strategy, will certainly scout this year’s quarterback class because it’s a good one. It’s a requirement and, as we’ve said here before, it’s also good football business.

Take the best player available, always and forever, even if he’s a quarterback.

The Broncos also have to bring in at least one and likely two additional quarterbacks in the offseason, no matter what the decision is on Tebow.

A lot was made of what Elway said this week about Tebow’s being on the team’s roster next season, but that was one of the biggest non-update updates in the history of pro football.

Of course, Tebow will be on the Broncos’ roster next year, he is the only quarterback on the current 53-man roster who is under contract for next season.

They cannot go into the 2012 season, no matter how this season goes, with just one quarterback on the depth chart. So, Tebow will have company, but the quality of that company remains to be seen.

And at this time, both the Broncos and Tebow have invested a lot in Tebow playing quarterback. He wants to be the starting quarterback and has resisted the idea of switching positions long before now.

The bottom line: His best position is quarterback. He is a powerful runner, but scouts don’t see him as an explosive runner.

And to take him out of a position where he is a run-pass threat is to diminish his abilities to make impact plays because he forces a defense to deal with two things rather than just one.

Tebow also often talks about how people have wanted him to change positions before in his football life, as far back as youth football, and he has routinely said he wants to be a quarterback.

Accuracy from the pocket is still his biggest hurdle. He has shown the ability to run, to weather tough times in a game and to bring his team back from a deficit.

He’s a quarterback, and that’s how he sees himself and how the Broncos see him over the long term, wherever the road may lead.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Tyreek Hill didn’t know what to do when he started hearing thousands of people in Arrowhead Stadium chanting his name, even as he stood all alone on the frozen turf waiting for the punt.